Arcade Fire's Jeremy Gara likes talking shop

Five months after the Arcade Fire issued its second album, "Neon Bible," the dramatic Canadian ensemble has cemented itself as one of rock's most vital new bands -- albeit a peculiar one.

The record is immediately alluring but hopelessly ambiguous. It's an oftentimes dark and apocalyptic masterpiece, full of pipe organ and strings and cryptic lyrics that mine everything from religious zealotry to America's lingering fearfulness to MTV tweenybopper fame.

Don't look for the band's enigmatic frontman, Win Butler, to explain it all, though. Both he and his wife and chief collaborator, Regine Chassagne, remain elusive interview subjects.

Drummer Jeremy Gara, who often stands in for them on the phone, called from their hometown of Montreal recently to fill us in on what he could about his band.

- On the tour schedule:

The Arcade Fire has never been a road hound, the kind of band that plays 300 dates a year. The 5-year-old group is about midway through its tour cycle for "Neon Bible," which began this spring.

"We're kind of right at the point where we're starting to get a little weary of it," Gara said. "This next American tour is going to be fun, though, because it's to a lot of cities we haven't played on this trip yet. Just the size of the shows is kind of daunting now. The U.K. tour is going to be at least mentally something to overcome, because it's all in arenas -- big venues, and not particularly nice venues."

- On "Neon Bible" sales:

Commercial success caught up with the band's critical acclaim. The album sold 92,000 U.S. copies its first week and debuted at No. 2 in Billboard, a major feat for an indie release (it's on North Carolina-based Merge Records). Both "Bible" and the band's 2004 CD, "Funeral," are nearing gold status in the U.S. (500,000 copies).

"The whole financing and selling of albums is a mystery to us," Gara said. "It was hard with this one. When 'Funeral' came out, they just pressed like 10,000 copies and that was it, at first. It was totally bizarre how much it wound up selling, because it never really exploded, but it never really died. It just consistently kept selling. With this one, there was a huge investment made on Merge's part to make sure there were like 200,000 copies right off the bat. But then we had to make sure we really marketed it so it did sell. So in that sense, we are happy -- or even just relieved -- that it has been selling."

- On touring with 10:

Officially a seven-member band, the Arcade Fire usually bulks up on tour. This outing features three extra players, including horn player Kelly Pratt of the band Beirut. The added members apparently don't make touring any more complicated.

"Even when we were just six people and Win was in school, it was hectic from the beginning for us trying to make everybody's schedules fit," Gara said.. "Now, it's more fun, especially now that we have buses. The family is bigger. And there are more options of who you can hang out with. Inevitably, a few people are going to go out and have fun one night and a few are going to go to bed. There's enough to choose which you're gonna do."

- On the next album:

"We've been banging around a couple parts, a few rhythmic ideas. But everybody has a bit of ADD, which is kind of a good thing," Gara said. "It's not going to be one type of record. A couple of the songs we're already playing with are totally different from each other."